Conn. LB High on UNC After Visit

Interest and opportunity intersected to enable North Carolina to host Koby Quansah, a linebacker from Connecticut, for a visit a couple of weeks ago.

Larry Fedora actually began UNC’s pursuit of Quansah, a 6-foot, 200-pounder from West Harford (Conn.) Kingswood-Oxford School. But when John Papuchis joined the staff, he took the reins.

“[Papuchis] has been telling me how he wants me to play for his defense [and] how he sees that I’d fit into the school and the program,” Quansah said.

Obviously, the distance between Hartford and Chapel Hill – a 10-hour ride without traffic – would make an unofficial trip to UNC onerous. Luckily for Quansah, during his spring break in late March a friend happened to be heading south.

“My baseball team, they do a spring tournament and my quarterback’s dad was driving down and he actually offered me a ride to check out some of the schools that were on the way down I-95,” Quansah said.

Thus, Quansah chose Duke, Maryland, and UNC.

Heading into his UNC visit, Quansah lacked a UNC offer. An offer was extended before his two-hour stay concluded.

“I kind of knew it was going to happen, because Coach Papuchis told me that he would like to but wanted to see me in person first,” Quansah said. “So I kind of expected it a little bit.”

The offer was presented to Quansah during a visit-ending meeting with Larry Fedora.

“He told me how he sees me fitting in defensive wise and school wise,” Quansah said. “And then as I left his office, he offered.”

Due to its brevity, Quansah’s UNC visit was limited to his meeting with Fedora, a quick tour of the football facilities, and a meeting with Papuchis.

“His pitch was: this school hasn’t always been a powerhouse in defense and now he’s trying to change that,” Quansah said. “He wants a dynamic, shutdown defense.”

According to Quansah, Papuchis envisions Quansah playing either the Mike or Sam linebacker. Although he began his high school career at strong safety, Quansah has primarily played inside linebacker for Kingswood-Oxford. He accumulated 122 tackles, including 15 for a loss and 3.5 sacks, and two fumble recoveries.

“They actually stand really high with me,” Quansah said. “I just want to come down again to see the academic side, as well. But overall, I loved what I saw of the football side of it. Now, I just want to see what they have to offer on the academic side.”

Quansah believes a return visit will take place this summer.

Besides his aforementioned spring break trips, Quansah has only visited “nearby” schools Boston College, Connecticut, Penn State, and Syracuse. He’s scheduled to make an overnight stay at Rutgers later this month and plans to fly out to several yet-to-be-determined colleges in the coming months. Stanford and Vanderbilt are among his desired destinations.

Although he’s high on UNC, Quansah won’t name a favorite schools list until later this summer after he has made more visits.